


some days, you're the only thing i know \\ only thing that's burning when the nights grow cold

by alex_archer



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, nisha is a twisted sociopath who's gone off the deepend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:48:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22709503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alex_archer/pseuds/alex_archer
Summary: one day i'll be sanenisha @ pandoranmama tim @ me
Relationships: Timothy Lawrence/Nisha
Kudos: 3





	some days, you're the only thing i know \\ only thing that's burning when the nights grow cold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PandoranMama](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PandoranMama/gifts).



Timothy grimaced as the guards raised his arms to cuff him, the bruised ribs flexing under torn skin. A hiss from one of the men told him the wound most likely looked as bad as it felt. Course, it was their buddies who had given it to him. That wound and a few others on several occurrences, but never any broken bones. He’d learned that was where she drew the line, well after that first time. He remembered it vividly, the broken arm he’d suffered from for days before she allowed anyone to see him. It had been his fault, he knew it and she made sure she told him, but he still couldn’t deal with the cruelty he saw in her eyes.

Never before, when they were together, did he think he’d ever see that cruelty as the receiver, she was always so kind to him. He’d thought she might be different from Jack, that her compassion for Timothy might expand and allow her to change. He was wrong. She told him it was Lynchwood, it was losing him and Jack, it was this planet. He worried it had always been there, that everything had been a lie. He knew she felt love for him, that she cared about him, but the fact that it all ended up just the same… He could never get that out of his head.

Now he was here, and she was alive. It was a miracle. That day, however, he picked the wrong fight. A group of her men brought in a man who’d been stealing her resources to feed his family. His damn _family_. She had him killed, but Timothy had tried to stop it. Thought maybe, after the months of his good behavior she might let him have this one. Instead, she pulled the chain connected to the collar around his throat, his body went lurching forward and he tried to brace himself against the fall. He heard the snap before he felt it, and boy did he feel it. The scream that left his mouth was cut short as she clapped, the gunshot going off let him know the man had been assassinated. His protestation had been in vain, and now his arm was broken too. He cradled it to his chest as he braved a look, seeing the guards dragging the man’s body away. The man who would never go home to his daughter, whose wife would wonder what had become of him when he doesn’t come home that night.

Turning his attention back to the source of all his current misery, he looked back up at her to find the _queen_ smiling down at him. He realized her clapping hadn’t been for the so-called justice she’d just performed, instead it had been for his failed attempt at begging mercy. His veins went cold, the searing wound was the only source of heat reminding him he was still alive, and he spat the blood pooling in his mouth from the impact. She leaned down to wipe his lips, drawing her fingers to her own mouth to kiss the blood away. His stomach churned and he vomited, and then his head was thrown back as a kick landed square on his face. The snap of his nose and the searing pain had him passing out, only to wake again in the cold of his cell.

He didn’t know how long he’d been out, but as soon as he woke he hoped it had been longer. His arm hurt with every small movement, every breath. When he heard the clapping again, he jumped and screamed at the burst of agony sending bolts of lightning sharp pangs up his limb. The clapping stilled and her low laugh filled the chamber, “Careful, handsome… Wouldn’t want to make that break any worse… I wonder how long it’ll take to set naturally. Of course, I’m far more experienced with the initial _breaking_ of limbs, not the healing process at an extended capacity. I am familiar enough to know that in a couple days it’ll need resetting, to heal properly. In order to extend my _personal_ knowledge of the healing process, for science if you will, I’ve decided to observe you as a test subject. You’ll be a controlled study, so no food or water for you, cowboy. Hopefully, at the end of the week, or whenever I remember you’re down here, you’ll have learned your lesson and will think _twice_ before interfering in matters that don’t concern _collared pets._ If not, well then we can revisit your own learning techniques. Sound alright to you?”

Timothy found himself crying, and not just from the pain. He’d never, not even on Elpis, seen this sort of cruelty from her before. He’d seen her break in skags, and train mounts, but she still was kinder to them than she was being to him right now. He thought she loved him, thought some sliver of that love might still exist and save him. He was so wrong, “What _happened_ to you? Why won’t you just kill me?”

“Oh, _honey..._ I’m gonna make you beg me to keep you alive instead,” Her grin sent shivers down his spine. He watched as she walked away, his head hitting the floor as he curled around his arm, getting ready to wait out this period of torture.

Of course now, he was used to the starvation and the dehydration, he just wished she had been wrong. That he didn’t beg to stay alive, that he didn’t _crave_ her admonishments because he knew there would be kindness after. He _longed_ for the light touches, the sweet kisses, anything to help him forget it wasn’t her, not really. He’d figured out a long time ago, he was hers and all this was just helping him realize it. As soon as he accepted that, things would get better. So he looked at the guards, around at his cell, and up to the chains on the wall keeping him standing.

This wasn’t a prison anymore, it was a home. That’s what terrified him the most.


End file.
